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Tonight, we fought some creatures with damage reduction versus any weapons not made of cold iron.
I have a fifth level tengu monk and we couldn't work out, by the rules as written, whether his unarmed strikes would overcome this damage reduction.
Using ki strike, his unarmed strikes are "treated as magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction", and we decided at the table that since his BAB was +3 that he could benefit from the "weapons with an enhancement bonus of +3 or greater can ignore some types of damage reduction" clause. However, we couldn't pin down an exact ruling.
I suppose the question is, does the monk's BAB count as an "enhancement bonus of +3" for the purposes of ignoring the cold iron damage reduction?
No, BaB doesn't count as 'magic bonuses' for regards of Ki Strike. Ki Strike evolves only at three specific steps:
1) at 4th level, their Unarmed Strikes are considered Magic weapons. As magic weapons, they can ONLY bypass Damage Reduction of creatures specifically vulnerable to magic weapons (DR X/magic). They are virtually considered '+1 weapons', for ease of definition (although, with Ki Strike only, they do not have +1 hit/damage like a 'true' +1 weapon ).
2) at 10th level, their Unarmed Strikes are also considered Lawful weapons. This is (currently) one of the less useful abilities, since there are NO creatures with DR X/Lawful in the Bestiary (luckily there will be some in the upcoming Bestiary 2), and there are VERY FEW creatures which possess DR X/lawful in the APG (Barbarians with the Greater Chaos Totem rage power and Oracles under the effect of a Divine Vessel spell). They can bypass both DR X/Lawful and DR X/magic with their Unarmed Strikes.
3) at 16th level, their Unarmed Strikes are also considered Adamantine weapons. This would be one of the best abilities, unless the Monk already possesses an Amulet of Mighty Fists +4 or better, a special Monk Weapon +4 or better, or a Brass Knuckle +4 or better (I know, the Brass Knuckle IS a Monk Weapon, but it is so infinitely better than the others that is deserves a separate entry IMHO). Monks now can bypass all three types of DR - DR X/Magic, DR X/Lawful, and DR X/Adamantine, including any combination of the three.
In order to bypass other special materials (Cold Iron and Silver) they would either need a weapon made of that metal or an effective enhancement of +3 or higher on a weapon or on themselves (but only through an Amulet of Mighty Fists, since a Greater Magic Fang or Greater Magic Weapon spell would only allow them to bypass DR X/Magic... which they would still bypass if possessing at least 1 Ki point in pool).
No, BAB is separate from 'Enhancement Bonus'. Ki Pool (magic) just means that his fists are treated as +0 magical weapons. Otherwise, there would be no point in him getting Ki pool (adamantine) at level 16, because adamantine can be overcome by an enhancement bonus of just +4 (while his bab is at +12 at level 16).
The only ways for a monk to get past cold iron DR with his fists is to use cold iron 'brass' knuckles or to have an Amulet of the Mighty Fists with a +3 bonus.
Excellent, those answers have clarified matters a great deal, thanks!